Round The World

New Delhi, 6 July 2010

Nuclear Energy Strides

All want piece of Indian Pie

By Monish Tourangbam

Research Scholar, School of International Studies (JNU)

The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, recently joined other world leaders at the G20 Summit in Toronto deliberating on the health of the global economy and ways to sustain growth amidst a fragile recovery and calls for institutional reform. This was Singh’s fourth meeting in recent times, the last one was in Pittsburgh and the next is scheduled to be held in Seoul.

Importantly, the G20 instead of the powerful G8 has come to signify the major and the more inclusive platform for debate and discussion on the international economic structure. Besides India being increasingly counted and heard as an inevitable voice of the international economy, something else caught the eyeballs in Toronto. Namely, India’s foreign policy interest. The Prime Minister’s visit accomplished something crucial that has catapulted Indo-Canadian ties to a different level altogether. India and Canada signed an agreement for peaceful uses of nuclear energy during this visit.

Manmohan Singh described it as “breaking new ground in the history of our cooperation in this sector.” Said he, “It reflects the change in international realities,” referring to the new status that India has gained in the international arena and the kind of image that it has managed to create for itself. Indeed, as the present scenario indicates, India is the place to be when it comes to nuclear commerce. Everyone wants to have a piece of the Indian pie.

Both countries resolved to ratify the accord and complete all remaining steps soon. This is the next step before Canada starts selling nuclear reactors to India. Canada said the “agreement will provide access for Canada's nuclear industry to India's expanding nuclear market.”

The India-Canada Agreement for Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear-Energy provides for cooperation in areas as design, construction, maintenance, sharing of operating experience and decommissioning of nuclear reactors, supply of uranium, projects in third countries, nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear waste management. The two countries may promote cooperation in the development and use of nuclear energy applications in the fields of agriculture, health care, industry and environment; and nuclear safety, radiation safety and environmental protection.

This agreement had been in the pipeline for some time now and it assumes importance keeping in mind the fact that Indo-Canadian ties on the nuclear front has been checkered at best. Canada clearly did not approve of the nuclear tests that India carried out in 1974 and 1998 at Pokhran, which led to a freeze in relationship as far as nuclear commerce was concerned. Moreover, India faced nuclear isolation for years and faced the wrath of many countries.

Further, India still refuses to acknowledge the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) accusing it of being discriminatory and increasing the divide between the nuclear haves and have-nots. So, it is really significant that countries like Canada and Japan, which led the pack in criticizing India’s nuclear tests in the past, has come around to endorse India as responsible country to deal with.

Significantly, this is where India’s changing relationship with the United States comes into the picture. New Delhi is now steadily and surely inching towards clinching nuclear deals with most countries that matters in the field of nuclear energy production, but a major portion of this windfall could to be attributed to the nuclear deal that the Manmohan Singh and the Bush Administration’s struck. Both the countries now, with Singh and Obama at the helm of affairs are equally committed to the proper implementation of this deal, in the midst of obvious legal and political tangles.

The Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) waiver that India managed to clinch at Vienna, with commendable assistance from the then Bush Administration has opened the floodgates, bringing out India from a long isolation. India as a viable market for nuclear energy was a thing written on the wall, with its growing economy and the ever-enlarging consumer base, but international legalities had put a brake on its quest and prevented other countries from investing in the country.

But, it looks as if they were only waiting for formalities to be performed because there seems to be a sort of “domino effect” in evidence with countries after countries ready to work on nuclear cooperation with India, a country highly skeptical of the NPT, which largely governs the ethics of international nuclear commerce. Besides countries like France, Russia and the United States, India is simultaneously engaged in working out an active nuclear cooperation with countries like Japan and South Korea. This has been largely made possible by the exception that was given to India as a result of the ‘123’ agreement and the NSG waiver.

Needless to say, this exception is not something that was given easily on a platter to New Delhi, but speaks volumes of the confidence that the international community has on India’s commitment towards controlling proliferation and its voluntary unilateral moratorium on further nuclear testing. India despite its abhorrence of the NPT, owing to its own policy stand, has responsibly maintained a commendable non-proliferation record, unlike its neighbour Pakistan, where the chief scientist has been declared an international criminal because of his nefarious activities in the nuclear black market.  

India’s increasing success in acquiring more and more partners in its quest for a sustainable supply of clean energy is also significant in its drive to mitigate climate change concerns. At this juncture, New Delhi has a challenge to balance its growth with the alarming climate change concerns. It has an inevitable role to play in the international stage in fighting climate change and hence it augurs well for such a country to be striving towards the more viable sources of clean energy at hand.

During the visit, Prime Minister Singh and his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper also showed their commitment towards expanding a range of activities and institutional frameworks that will contribute to the shared goal of increasing bilateral trade to $15 billion annually in the next five years. Memorandums of Understandings (MoUs) were also signed in the field of Earth Sciences and Mining, Higher Education Cooperation and Cultural Cooperation.

The Indian Prime Minister also highly praised the contribution of the sizeable Indian community in Canada that serves as unbreakable link between the two countries providing more avenues for increasing the dynamism of the cooperation. Solemnly observing the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the bombing of Air India flight 182 “Kanishka” on June 23, 1985, in which 329 lives were tragically lost, the two leaders condemned terrorism in all its facets and agreed to cooperate actively in counter-terrorism and security-related matters, calling for an early conclusion and adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism within the UN framework.

Already, there are various mechanisms in place which sustains the regularity and consistency of the Indo-Canadian relationship. The nuclear agreement will, no doubt, enhance the ties to the next level, giving more opportunities to increase the web of inter-dependence and mutualism between the two countries. -----INFA

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